Union sues sheriff over ‘pay jobs’ plan

Filing claims Smith did not remit federal taxes on contracts

SAN JOSE — Sheriff Laurie Smith collects but does not pay federal taxes on hundreds of private security contracts she handles every year, according to a lawsuit filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court on Tuesday by the union that represents her rank-and-file employees.

The suit also alleges Smith routinely breaks the law by failing to get approval from the Board of Supervisors before entering into the contracts and by using reserve deputies instead of regular deputies to do the work.

“This is pretty much a swindle job, the fact that the sheriff has been collecting Social Security and not turning it over to the federal government,” said Roger Winslow, vice president of the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association of Santa Clara County.

Smith dismissed the lawsuit as a “political stunt.”

“This is just the latest political stunt from a few disgruntled union bosses,” she said. “It’s simply untrue.”

According to the suit, Smith oversees the “pay jobs” program in which deputies are contracted to provide security for large private events. The bill includes an administrative fee and certain taxes, including the Federal Insurance Contributions Act.

“But the sheriff does not forward these tax deductions to the federal government; consequently, employees who work pay jobs receive no credits under Social Security,” the lawsuit states.

Winslow said it isn’t clear how much money is at stake. A public records act filed by the union revealed the Sheriff’s Office netted about $145,000 in fees in 2008, he said.

The Sheriff’s Office enters into hundreds of private security contracts every year, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also accuses Smith of failing to follow the law by not negotiating a rate for regular deputies who work pay jobs. In 2011, the rate was lowered from one-and-a-half times a deputy’s regular hourly pay to $40.62 per hour. Smith also started used lower-paid reserve deputies that year and regular deputies were all but banned from working pay jobs in 2015, according to the suit.

Winslow said the union wants Smith to comply with the law.

“We are a law enforcement agency,” he said. “We’re supposed to be abiding by those laws we enforce.”

The lawsuit follows the union’s recent demand for an investigation into Smith for releasing details about internal investigations of deputies to the head of the jail-reform commission. Smith denied allegations that she did so to preserve her re-election prospects.